"skunked" and "dirty katie"

[Steve Kl.]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2002, John Blower wrote:

> In Britain in the 1960s, we called the Queen of Spades "Black Maria", which
> was also what we called the game of Hearts.

In my family, Black Maria is a specific 7-card poker game (also called
"Dirty Bitch" when my cousin Bobby plays) in which 2 cards are dealt face
down, the next 4 up, the last one down. If the queen of spades is turned
up at any point, all the cards are thrown in, you re-ante, and it starts
all over.

The high poker hand splits the pot with the person who has the highest
spade in the hole, unless you have a pair of natural sevens (face-down),
in which case, you get everything.

-- Steve